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4 May 2022

Logistics network established for aid supplies to protect Ukrainian cultural heritage

Logistics network established for aid supplies to protect Ukrainian cultural heritage
4 May 2022

The German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Cultural Heritage Response Unit, supported by the DAI, the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) and the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA), have, in collaboration with other cultural institutions, set up a logistics network to deliver material assistance for the safeguarding of museums, archives and monuments in Ukraine. The Federal Foreign Office supports these aid supplies, which supplement measures taken as part of the initiative Safeguarding Cultural Heritage in Ukraine.

The military aggression in Ukraine is not only causing human suffering on a wide scale but is also leading to the destruction of museums, libraries, archives and monuments. Seven world heritage sites, over 400 museums and 3,000 cultural sites are currently at risk because of the war. In response to Ukraine’s appeals for international aid via the EU civil protection mechanism, German cultural institutions have come together to offer assistance within the network Safeguarding Cultural Heritage in Ukraine. The network was established by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media in association with the Foreign Office.

President of the DAI, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Friederike Fless, with Dr. Katja Piesker (centre), project leader of the Cultural Heritage Response Unit and head of the DAI’s Architecture Division, in conversation with the commissioner for cultural relations policy at the Foreign Office, Irmgard Maria Fellner (left), on a visit to the logistics centre in Berlin. | photo: DAI, Eva Götting-Martin

Packaging materials for cultural preservation

The German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Cultural Heritage Response Unit have joined forces with Blue Shield Deutschland, the Guidelines for the Protection of Cultural Property (known by the German acronym SiLK) and a number of emergency response organisations as well as the DGKS (a registered association for cultural heritage protection) to set up a logistics network for the collection and distribution of aid supplies. To this end, urgently needed packaging materials such as bubble wrap, cartons, boxing, packaging paper, plastic sheeting, sandbags, carbon dioxide extinguishers, fire-retardant textiles and other aid supplies are being collected in storage areas specially made available by the Allied Museum in Berlin, where they are being prepared for shipping.





At the THW logistics centre in Hilden, a shipment of packaging material donated by the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne has been delivered | photo: THW, Sebastian Vogler.




The Cottbus branch of the THW transports emergency supplies donated by the Fürst Pückler Museum foundation | photo: DAI, Eva Götting-Martin.

The German Federal Agency for Technical Relief is making its logistical expertise and its central logistics centre in Hilden available for shipments of emergency aid to Ukraine. The Ukrainian partners provide lists of materials that are needed to protect and transport movable cultural assets and for the emergency safeguarding of immovable cultural heritage.

German cultural institutions set up transport routes

Experts in the preservation of cultural heritage at the DAI and in the Cultural Heritage Response Unit, supported by the Foreign Office, are coordinating the collection of the supplies and, with their partners, are establishing reliable and durable transport routes to Ukraine. The THW is offering its considerable logistical experience in the field of humanitarian aid, while the LEIZA is contributing its expertise in boxing and consolidating primarily archaeological cultural assets.

At the logistics centre in Berlin packaging materials, fire extinguishers and other emergency supplies are awaiting onward transport by organisations such as the European Heritage Volunteers. | photo: DAI, Eva Götting-Martin.

Blue Shield Deutschland has put its international contacts and its many years’ experience with cultural heritage in conflicts, disasters and emergency situations at the network’s disposal. As a non-profit association, Blue Shield Deutschland collects financial donations for the initiative. The emergency response organisations in Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne, Halle/Saale, Weimar, Dresden and Berlin, coordinated by the SiLK team, collect donations of material and forward it to central collecting points. The cultural heritage protection association DGKS is working with partners to produce an information campaign to appeal for donations throughout Germany.

By setting up the logistical infrastructure, all the parties involved in the network Safeguarding Cultural Heritage in Ukraine hope to create a sustainable emergency relief mechanism for the protection and preservation of Ukrainian cultural heritage.

At the logistics centre in Berlin, from left to right: Christoph Rogalla von Bieberstein (project coordinator, Cultural Heritage Response Unit), Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Friederike Fless (President of the DAI), Simone Maaßen-Krupke (Foreign Office, head of Division 603), Dr. Jürgen Lillteicher (director of the Allied Museum), Irmgard Maria Fellner (Foreign Office Commissioner for cultural relations policy), Dr.-Dipl.-Ing. Tobias Busen (project coordinator ArcHerNet, Cultural Heritage Response Unit), Dr. Dipl.-Ing. Katja Piesker (head of the DAI’s Architecture Division / project leader of the Cultural Heritage Response Unit), Markus Forster (Foreign Office, Division 613), Florian Pauls (scientific collection manager at the Allied Museum) | photo: AlliiertenMuseum, Philipp Jester.


Informationen zur Unterstützung durch Spenden :

Blueshield Deutschland

Notfallverbünde. Gemeinsames Portal der Notfallverbünde Kulturgutschutz in Deutschland

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kulturgutschutz e.V.

Webseiten mit Hilfsmaßnahmen für den Kulturgutschutz in der Ukraine:

DAI – Solidarität und Hilfe für die Ukraine

DAI – Hilfe für die Ukraine – Sicherungsprojekt für das Wissen über das kulturelle Erbe

SiLK – SicherheitsLeitfaden Kulturgut (auch in englischer Sprache)

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